Monthly Archives: February 2011

Harvard College Has Declared Only 1 Snow Day

Published February 4, 2011

Harvard undergrads, still hoping for a snow day in this extra-brutal winter: Don’t hold your breath.

The Crimson reports Harvard College has cancelled classes for snow only once, for three days, during the Blizzard of ’78.

Administrators decided to officially shut down Harvard on Feb. 7, only after then-Gov. Michael S. Dukakis declared a state of emergency, closed schools for two days and called in 8,500 members of the National Guard to help clear the roads.

[…]

By Wednesday, two days after the snow started, 29 inches had accumulated in Boston.

The snow was so deep that it buried any cars left abandoned on the road. Because Dukakis banned all means of transportation except for emergency vehicles, many students used skis to get around campus.

“We were cross-country skiing and literally going across the tops of cars,” said Patricia M. Nolan ’80.

Harvard’s graduate schools have closed for snow this winter, Harvard spokesman Kevin Galvin tells me. But it took the greatest snowstorm of all time to close Harvard College.

End Of The He-cession?

Published February 4, 2011

WBUR’s Curt Nickisch reports:

New figures show jobs added in Massachusetts last year went to men at a greater rate than women.

Men typically have a higher unemployment rate than women during recessions. That’s because women are more likely to leave the job market for family reasons. But this last recession was especially hard on males.

Men put the men in unemployment rate. When the job market is really hot, Curt tells me, the unemployment rate for men versus women is typically even. But when the job market slips, men get hit first.

At the end of 2010, the Mass. unemployment rate for men was 10 percent; for women, it was 8 percent.

But the last quarter of 2010 showed gains in construction, manufacturing and technology — sectors dominated by men.

Also, don’t call it that.

Related Stories:

Friday Morning: Dreading Saturday School

Published February 4, 2011

Good morning! All this snow is getting pretty heavy — literally. State officials are urging people to clear off their roofs after more than 70 buckled this week. Amazingly, no injuries have been reported. A dozen schools are closed today over concerns about roofs.

Speaking of schools, some have had seven or eight snow days already this season. WBUR’s Monica Brady-Myerov reports on what districts are doing to make up for last time. State law requires 180 school days a year. (Sorry, kids: Saturday school.)

WBUR’s David Boeri reports on three guys who love the white stuff. Roofers in Acton are having a banner year doing treacherous work.

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 9 percent last month, but the economy didn’t add many jobs. Alan Clayton-Matthews, a respected economist at Northeastern University, said the Massachusetts economy slowed down “significantly” in the last quarter of 2010 but is expected to continue growing.

In light of the news he’ll run again, Democratic Rep. Barney Frank talked with WBUR about his future plans.

Oh, and they (finally) found that snake. In other missing pet news, “experts” now say that loose turkey on the Cape probably doesn’t belong to Ethel Kennedy, after all. (How do they know? Because the bird has a beard.)

Today In Weird: Ethel Kennedy Claims Aggressive Turkey

Published February 3, 2011

I just… I don’t even… Here, watch this first:

[youtube url=”QJSGIt-4MXE”]

The Cape Cod Times reports:

The turkey that attacked a mail truck in Centerville last week may have a Kennedy connection.

“It was my turkey,” Ethel Kennedy said in a phone conversation with the Times on Wednesday.

It gets better: Ethel Kennedy (RFK’s widow) said the turkey escaped ON THANKSGIVING.

“I wanted the grandchildren to know what a live turkey looked like,” said Kennedy, who was calling from Florida. “I asked Bobby (son Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) to go to a turkey farm and get one black one and one white one.”

But trouble began to gobble shortly after the birds arrived in Hyannisport. Kennedy said her son opened the car door and the black turkey immediately escaped.

No word on whether the bird might be related to the roaming turkeys of Brookline.

Update, 2/4: The bird probably does not belong to Ethel Kennedy.

2nd update: A capture attempt was unsuccessful.

Thursday Morning: Frank Won’t Quit

Published February 3, 2011

Good morning! Another snowstorm is coming Saturday. You’re welcome.

Here’s what’s news on a slow-ish Thursday:

Yet another roof has collapsed, this time a house in JP, under the weight of snow. (No one was hurt.) The Globe reports on “an unprecedented wave of structural failures across the state linked to the season’s seemingly endless supply of snow, rain, ice, and sleet.” (Get a look at the photo.)

Not that I needed to tell you, but all this snow is starting to raise tempers. Two men where shoveling in the Back Bay and got into an altercation over throwing snow. Police said one man threatened the other with knives and was arrested.

As I wrote earlier, Rep. Barney Frank will seek re-election in 2012. (My colleague is digging up the audio of Frank telling WBUR he’s tired of getting the question.)

The city has a new head of human services. Daphne Griffin will oversee services for homeless people, veterans, women and young people in Boston.

Universal Hub tracks down and interviews Dan Sternof Beyer, the artist behind those mysterious and beautiful snowdecahedrons around Boston.

Barney Frank Will Run Again

Published February 3, 2011

Democratic Rep. Barney Frank says he will run for a 17th term in 2012.

There had been speculation Frank might retire, since Massachusetts is set to lose a House seat in redistricting.

Frank, 70, said he knows it’s early to announce his plans, but he keeps getting asked:

While I would have preferred to put off a discussion about the next election until a later date, I have been asked on a number of occasions about my plans. In addition, I have become convinced that making my decision to run for re-election known is important for maximizing the impact I can have on the range of issues to which I am committed. These issues require a time commitment longer than the next two years.

Frank said his top two priorities are:

  1. “to defend the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act”
  2. “to reduce significantly America’s swollen, unnecessary, worldwide military footprint”

In a statement, Frank also laid out other priorities:

While these two issues are central to our ability to return to a full-employment economy while protecting our quality of life, there are other national and regional issues on which I will be working as well — protecting the fishing industry in Massachusetts from arbitrary, unjust and unfair actions; fighting for full legal equality for all citizens; providing for the housing needs of low-income people, not by pushing them unwisely and unsustainably into homeownership, but rather by building affordable rental housing; and helping local communities provide a level of service adequate to the needs of their residents.

Frank faced a strong 2010 challenger in Republican Sean Bielat, but he easily won re-election. Frank has represented the 4th Congressional District since 1980.

Time to create the Election 2012 tag…

Update: Bielat has responded in a statement of his own:

In his statement, Congressman Frank states that his goals require “a time commitment longer than two years.” It is unclear why the previous 32 years haven’t been sufficient to achieve his goals, but nonetheless, Congressman Frank’s justifications for remaining in office show why he shouldn’t.

Bielat, an ex-Marine, focuses his rather academic critique on Frank’s call for reducing wasteful military spending: “With unrest rampant around the globe, it is dangerous to entrust our national security to those with superficial knowledge of security issues and strong, parochial ideologies.”

If Frank just announced he is running for re-election, did Bielat just announce he is re-running for election?

Update, 2/4: For the record, Bielat’s spokeswoman said he has not determined whether to run again. “Let’s see what redistricting holds,” she said.

Wednesday Roundup: The Mail, And Hubbub, Must Go Through

Published February 2, 2011

Chiseled above the entrance to the giant Post Office on 8th Avenue in New York City, the Postal Service’s unofficial motto reminds us that mail carriers are always there.

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of
their appointed rounds.

Come snow, come sleet, come rain, WBUR and wbur.org are too.

As the second storm in two days continues to hammer Boston, snarl the morning commute, and generally make things unpleasant, children around the state are celebrating yet another snow day. As WBUR’s Steve Brown reports, with all of the snow days, many superintendents are thinking it’s Groundhog Day. Wait, it is Groundhog Day.

It isn’t just schoolchildren who are smiling today. With all of the snow and ice, cities and towns needs tons of road salt to keep their roads safe. It’s a good winter to be in the road salt business.

Continuing WBUR’s week-long series on the challenges of treating child mental heath patients, WBUR’s Monica Brady-Myerov took a look at how doctors screen for mental health problems.

It’s cold outside, but a new agreement ensures that a Cambridge power plant will send steam into Boston to help heat buildings. It will also cut the amount of harmful discharge of hot water into the Charles River.

If you aren’t reading Peter Gelzinis’ Boston Herald series on love in war zones, please do.

For the record, libraries in Boston are open today, trash pickup will still occur (somehow), and UniversalHub says ten community centers are open.

Stay safe.

You Reported Unshoveled Sidewalks. Now What?

Published February 1, 2011

Our experiment taught us one thing is for sure: Shoveling is a very sensitive issue.

On Friday afternoon, 24 hours after last week’s storm had passed, I asked you to report unshoveled sidewalks, hydrants and bus stops. By 6 p.m. Monday, exactly 200 pins were on the map.

Almost as soon as the project started, the response was polarized.

“People want to sit here and rat out their neighbors for everything that they do, and it makes certain people feel good about themselves,” said Steven, who did not give us his last name. “I mean, if you have a real problem with it, and they’re breaking the law, then call the police and let the police do their job.”

A screen shot of our snow violations map

Was our shovel map a success? Depends how you define success.

This view was shared by other readers and journalists.

But hundreds of people participated, many of them expressing appreciation for this new tool. I read detailed descriptions of repeat offenders, errant businesses and unresponsive cities and towns. We had created an outlet for the people’s rage.

Once it was obvious this thing was taking off, we asked ourselves: What should we do with all this data? How can this project yield something positive? We discussed the idea of gathering “citizen patrols” to help out — but decided not to “get into the Robin Hood business,” not this time.

I am reaching out to cities and towns to see if our map could help aid the big dig-out.  The city of Boston already has a robust system for reporting and responding code violations. Data from the Mayor’s Hotline and the Citizens Connect app is made public.

Other municipalties aren’t so accessible. Citizen reporter Saul Tannenbaum had to file a public records request to build a map of Cambridge snow violations.

At first brush, the response from officials is tepid. Great idea, but we have enough complaints to deal with.

This project is only worth doing again — people are already asking to submit new reports — if it contributes to a greater good. Does it, can it? What do you think?

Maybe, at the end of the day, we gave people a place to vent. And maybe that’s OK.

Where Do We Put All This Snow?

Published February 1, 2011

Mailboxes covered in snow

Waiting for the mailman (Submitted to WBUR's Flickr group by Paul Keleher)

By the end of this week, Boston will have received almost a full Shaq of snow — more snow last month alone than all of last year. Where are we supposed to do with it?

WBUR’s Monica Brady-Myerov is working on a piece for Thursday that gets at that very issue. WBUR’s David Boeri is preparing a story about the towering salt mountains in Chelsea. Here are some of the options we’re looking into:

Dump it in the harbor. Environmentalists don’t like this, because a lot of chemicals get trapped in there. Ex-Beth Israel CEO Paul Levy (who seemed to get the idea while listening to WBUR), said the environmental hazards of trucking snow outweigh the hazards of dumping chemicals.

Dump it at Logan airport. This is what Mayor Tom Menino wants to do. The airport is one of the last places in the city with (vast) open space. The airport says no. WBUR’s Fred Thys, who attended a news conference today at Logan, said airport officials don’t want to invest the resources to escort city dump trucks all day. (It’s a security issue.)

Use flamethrowers to melt it. This was first proposed in 1948 by Boston Mayor James Michael Curley:

I am very desirous that the Institute of Technology have a competent group of engineers make an immediate study as to ways and means of removing the huge accumulation not only in Boston, but throughout the entire state, whether it be by the use of flame throwers or chemicals or otherwise, so that we may have a gradual disposal when it starts to melt rather than having disastrous floods as a consequence of its melting with great property damage and with injury to the public.

MIT responded: Um, no. “The use of any heating equipment assumes an ample supply of liquid fuels which is certainly not the case this winter,” said MIT President Karl Compton. That was 63 years ago. Should we revisit the idea?

Use snow dragons to melt it. Ah, now this is high-tech! What looks like a giant vacuum cleaner on skis, powered by biodiesel, sucks up the snow and gives it a hot bath. But it’s really, really expensive, and the city isn’t interested yet.

Use Snowzilla to blast it away. Snowzilla is a laughably monstrous snow blower used to clear the white stuff from the MBTA’s high-speed Mattapan line. It plows through snow like nobody’s business. But it guzzles 900 gallons of diesel every trip — more than a commercial jet, the Globe notes — and isn’t sustainable.

Build igloos. This is personally rewarding but time-consuming.

Truck it to a snow farm. I saved the least for last. This is what the city does now — push it around to six snow farms throughout Boston. It’s expensive, time-consuming and air-polluting. But it works. WBUR’s Adam Ragusea visited one of these awe-inspiring places last week on Radio Boston. “It’s like a big, frothy wave, like the wave at the head of a tsunami that’s just kind of frozen in time.”

I might also suggest dumping it at the old Filene’s site.

I’m sure there are ideas I missed. What are yours?

Tuesday Roundup: Where Every Day’s A Snow Day

Published February 1, 2011

Happy Tuesday! I hope you’re staying warm and dry. It’s raw out there.

Sen. John Kerry joined Morning Edition to talk about his anything-but-radical idea for Egypt: Ask President Hosni Mubarak to resign gracefully and stay in the country, then hold free and fair elections later this year.

WBUR’s Monica Brady-Myerov continues our series about mental health care for children. She reports on the divide between parents who medicate and those who don’t.

Chicagoans tease me incessantly about the fact that Boston has “snow days.” My mother said her company has never declared a snow day ever. President Obama’s children didn’t know what snow days were until they moved to D.C. Herald columnist Margery Eagan says enough is enough: “It’s not 1860 anymore.”

State Sen. Jack Hart of South Boston is running with Paul Levy’s idea to dump snow in the Harbor. He is asking for a moratorium on the ban, the Herald reports. But: “Environmentalists say city snow is packed with salt, oil, litter and other chemicals and pollutes the ocean.”

Finally, WBUR’s Meghna Chakrabarti (@meghnawbur) is combatting the crankiness to start the hash tag #snowlovely on Twitter. She wants people to share what they love about snow.